The Terra Project is a virtual state simulation run by Professor Quinn Mecham of Middlebury College, hosted in the online virtual world Second Life. Citizens of the Terra Project log in to Second Life in order to run for office, vote, make and enforce policy, and perform other functions of government, all within a virtual environment. This simulation is currently in its second iteration as part of Professor Mecham’s Spring 09′ PSCI 0103 introductory course.

The Terra Project is now open to all interested members of the Middlebury college community! This issue was voted upon by the citizens of Terra during the fall term and was passed as part of the first ammendment to the constitution of Terra. For more information on the constitutional referendum and other pieces of legislature passed during the fall term please check out the Terra Project site.

Second Life users can find the Terra Project on Middlebury’s hosted land by following this SLurl (Second Life url).

Just a friendly reminder to please help us test our implementation of Libraryfind. As mentioned in a post on August 30th, we are experimenting with this open source application which allows search across multiple resources.

It’s not ready for public consumption just yet, but we are making it available for testing by LIS staff. You’ll see five choices: Digital & Print Undergraduate Theses, Images & Multimedia, Middlebury College Abernethy Collections, Library Catalogs and TEST Collection Group. The first choice searches all of the NITLE Dspace thesis collections, as well as the Special Collections thesis database on Concerto. The second searches 12 different collections, some in ContentDM and some in Concerto. The third searches the Abernethy Collections on ContentDM. Library Catalogs currently searches Midcat only. We are testing various journal indexes in the TEST Collection Group, although currently none of those work.

Barbara is trying to identify and fix these problems, and Bryan Carson is working on making the interface more Middlebury blue.

Government Information Resources

More than 50,000 historical digitized maps are now available online at http://infoweb.newsbank.com/?db=SSMAP. The original maps are part of the U. S. Congressional Serial Set and they include a broad range of themes and cover from the early 1800’s to about the 1950’s. Early maps were created by expeditions that surveyed the American west, Alaska, and other parts of the world, as well as early surveys of cities, harbors and other geographic features for most of the country. Among the maps of local interest are a 1904 soil survey of Addison County and maps of Silver Lake, Lake Dunmore, and Otter Creek. Other maps provide detail of specific battles in the Civil War and some early city plans. Although the maps may be of greatest interest to geography majors, they may also be useful in supporting student research in geology, American history, and ethnic studies, among other disciplines.

Information Technology at Tufts University has created an integrated suite of Web 2.0 technologies, communication tools for “for teaching, learning, research, and co-curricular activities.” This is a great example of access, support and marketing all in on space.

The site gives the user a gateway to each technology. It also includes help documentation, examples and links to suggested uses. For instance, on the wiki page-

Wikis – Suggested Uses

A wiki is simply a web page or site that is fully editable from a browser using a very simple “mark-up” language. Its strength is that it allows small groups to add, revise, and edit web content, so it is a natural tool for most collaborative writing activities. Like a web site, it allows for non-linear linking of individual wiki pages. Whenever a wiki page is edited, a new version of the page is created with the old version being archived for the site editors’ reference.

Demonstrate the evolution of thought processes through the different versions of a wiki page.

Create a collaborative knowledge base that can be added to over time and across courses.

Helps small groups of students develop a project, collect ideas, papers, timelines, documents, datasets, and study results into a collective digital space.

There will be a staff information session on Wednesday morning, October 15 at 9 am in room 105 on the U. S. Congressional Serial Set, the American State Papers and the top ten federal statistical websites. Anyone who is interested in the topics is welcome to attend.

With 17 class days in September, Librarians will have presented 53 classes. That’s a rate of 3 per day since the beginning of the academic year. Perhaps you can understand why getting these scheduled into rooms with adequate equipment, e.g., smart classrooms with computers for students has us tearing our hair.

First Year Seminars represent the greatest percentage of classes at the beginning of the term. New students need a basic introduction to LIS resources and services. Classes will often be back for in-depth instruction in subject resources when research papers are assigned.

Basic technology instruction is included in a large percentage of these classes, introduced either by a Technology Liaison or by the Librarian. Classes that involve intensive use of digital media generally schedule classes separately. Some of that activity will be reported at a later date.

]]>http://sites.middlebury.edu/lis/2008/09/26/meeting-classes-introducing-lis-resources/feed/0Farewell!http://sites.middlebury.edu/lis/2008/08/22/farewell/
http://sites.middlebury.edu/lis/2008/08/22/farewell/#commentsFri, 22 Aug 2008 14:50:33 +0000http://sites.middlebury.edu/list/?p=25Thank you to all of you for such a wonderful place to work and live…with insightful and inspiring colleagues…and lots of exciting challenges! Thank you for a wonderful going away party as well. I will miss all of you. I will send a long a little update sometime to let you know how things are going on my life adventure! In the spirit of Mike Lynch’s comments at the party I offer this….

If you want to keep in touch….

My new email address at Bucknell:
carrie.rampp@bucknell.edu No idea yet how to login or set up this alias that will be printed on my business cards.

My new work cell #:
Don’t have it yet…but even when I do, I’ll have no idea how to use it as I’ll be having to make the switch from my widely-known Blackberry addiction to a WinMobile device, probably a Treo. So probably okay I’m not including it.

My new home address:
257 Chestnut Street, Mifflinburg, PA 17844 I have so much stuff exactly when I’ll be moved in is a mystery.

My new office phone:
570-577-1342 No idea how to get messages…but I never checked my voice mail much here either so this won’t be much of a change for you.
If you actually want to contact me and have hopes of reaching me…probably best to go with gmail for now: carrierampp@gmail.com

This is a very basic interface for managing media on the Flash Media Server, affectionately called MiddTube. This interface allows streaming of .flv, .mp4 and .mp3 files. Thank you to Brett Wilhelm for all of his work in creating this interface.

Brett has written a MiddTube plugin for our instance of WordPress MU. This will allow anyone to embed a video from MiddTube into our WP blogs using a simple syntax – For the geeks at heart, this short text line will be translated into embed code, using the FlowPlayer. The FlowPlayer will also generate an embed code that can be copied and pasted into other html pages. Adam Franco has created similar functionality for Segue, and Ian McBride is working on embedding for the CMS. Once the media has been embedded, the code in the player can be used to embed the media in any web page.

The Vermont Library Association’s Reference Roundtable took place on Wednesday at St. Michael’s. Look to Jean Simmons or Brenda Ellis for a report on what they learned.

On Monday, Brenda will be doing a presentation at the Mad River Writing Retreat for FYSE faculty that the CTLR puts on each year.

We’re preparing our contribution to the First-Year Orientation Information Center, to be held at the Main Library and scheduled for Wednesday, September 3. The Research & Instruction Section will provide a variety of staffed demos and a video introducing librarians. Take time to look around and to welcome new students and their families.

LIS orientation for New Faculty will take place on Friday, August 29. Watch for the new faculty faces in the afternoon.

The Research & Instruction Group offers thanks and appreciation to Carrie Rampp for able, challenging, enthusiastic, energizing, encouraging, inspirational, innovative, and patient leadership. Carrie, you did it all and you made it fun. We’ll miss your hearty laugh as much as your creative ideas. Our best wishes for success at Bucknell go with you!

As the beginning of the Fall Term steadily approaches, it’s a good time to review LIS policies regarding room scheduling. These are readily available to you in Public Folders in Outlook. Look for Public Folders, then LIS, then Library Room Schedules, then Library Room Guidelines. It is also available in the LIS staff folder on Snowleopard.

It’s especially important during the busy first 2 months of the Term that LIS staff meeting classes have priority in the instructional spaces. Please be firm in applying the guidelines and flexible in moving meetings that could take place in a different space or at a different time. Each room has it’s own guidelines. In LIB 105, for example:
• Scheduling more than 7 days in advance is only for LIS+ instruction/training, otherwise open as a computer lab
• Should be used for meetings/trainings when every individual needs a computer
• Non-LIS+ faculty and staff may reserve for non-recurring classes/trainings (needing computer use) no earlier than 7 days in advance
• Groups smaller than 8 should try and use other rooms (room 221/230 with laptops checked out)
• Be sensitive to academic calendar and student needs for computer labs
• Avoid scheduling during busy student times (mid terms, end of terms, exams)
You will earn the appreciation and gratitude of those of us who are attempting to schedule classes for instruction.